


Home Again

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 23:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13868538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Jim and Blair get home after Sierra Verde





	Home Again

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 Sentinel Bingo prompt 'in vino veritas/drunk'

 Home Again

by Bluewolf

Jim had sometimes thought he would like to get rid of his sentinel senses - indeed, when they resurfaced five years after he left Peru and Blair had explained them to him, that had been his first reaction - how to get rid of them. But over the next four years he came to realize that with Blair's help he had learned how to control them.

Except when he was drunk.

When he was drunk control went out the window.

But if he was drunk, his senses - although active enough to bother him - were far from clear.

Sight was blurred, as if he had severe cataracts in both eyes.

Hearing was muffled, as if he was wearing thick, thick earmuffs.

Touch felt as if his fingers were numb.

Taste - nothing had any taste. And if he tried to smell anything, it was as if he was sniffing at the interior of an empty box that had been closed for years.

One experience of drunkenness - after his senses kicked in - was enough.

So although he enjoyed a beer, he rarely had more than one, never more than two. If he was out anywhere with his fellow cops, he made 'I don't drink and drive; having just one keeps me well inside the legal limit' his credo, and assigned himself as the designated driver if it looked as if anyone was going to overindulge.

But he threw control out of the window the night they got back from Sierra Verde.

Blair had gone back to the loft, after a short detour to Rainier to pick up the boxes containing his possessions - he had planned to sleep on the floor of his office there, if Alex hadn't thrown him into the fountain in front of Hargrove Hall. Jim helped him to carry everything back into apartment 307, glad that Rafe and H had taken the furniture back for him while he was away - he was, he thought, owe them a massive debt for that.

Jim was aware of Blair giving him a slightly quizzical look when he opened his third beer of the evening, but the younger man said nothing. His silence impelled Jim to say, almost defensively, "I'll know when I've had enough."

Blair just nodded. "I don't blame you if you want to get drunk. It's been a hell of a few days."

"At least we got the nerve gas back... but Blair?"

"Yeah?"

"She was a sentinel. How could she betray her gift like that?"

"She told me she developed the senses through solitary confinement in prison. So she was actually a criminal before the senses kicked in."

"But - "

"I know," Blair said. "Even unaware of your senses, you were drawn to 'protect and serve'. You might have expected her to be drawn to that, too - but she wasn't. And Jim - there was nothing you could have done to help her. She chose to be a criminal."

Jim was silent for some moments, then, "Blair... "

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. On the beach... I didn't want her, but... "

"Not your fault, man. I didn't pay much attention to it when I first read Burton, but there was... well, almost a throw-away paragraph I finally remembered... 'Sentinels are almost always male, but one tribe told me they had had a female sentinel some years previously. She had very heightened allure; no man she approached could resist her. She had caused much discord in the tribe until one of the women, whose man she had stolen, killed her.' If what Alex had was heightened sex appeal... how could you resist her, when she was determined to seduce you?"

Jim drained his third bottle of beer before saying, "Truth?"

"Truth. I'll show you it - tomorrow, after I get everything unpacked."

Jim nodded and took a fourth beer from the fridge. "You want another?" he asked.

"Not yet. I've barely started this one." Blair knew that he had to stay sober; if Jim kept on drinking at this rate, he was going to have a problem before he was much older, and Blair couldn't let Jim suffer if there was anything he could do to help.

"Even when I was kissing her I knew I didn't want her," Jim muttered. "I knew I didn't love her. If there's one person in the world that I love, Chief, it's you. I don't say I want to go to bed with you... but I love you."

Blair crossed to him, and wrapped his arms around him. "I can say the same," he replied. "And if we ever decide to take that love to bed... all I can say is, we'll have one hell of a good time."

 


End file.
